As usual, when the release notes for a new version of a runtime come out, we have a bunch of updates regarding very internal and transparent bits (at least to us, as users of the runtime).
However, with the release notes of Node.js 19, we have some interesting gems that if you don’t care to look at in detail, you probably missed from the announcement.
So let’s take a look at what are the most exciting parts of the changes announced with version 19 of our favorite JavaScript runtime.
We now have a WATCH flag
Granted, it’s still in experimental mode, but at least we can say we have the beginnings of a watch flag. Does that mean Node is slowly taking some cues from the Deno team?
In case you’re not aware, Deno took a different approach from Node when they designed their CLI. Instead of just giving their users a minimalistic way of running their scripts, the Deno team gives you everything you need on a single executable.
That means file watcher, test runner, code prettifier, and more. It’s definitely a different approach from what Node has been doing for the last decade, but it seems to be working. After having some conversations with Deno developers I can see the appeal of having a single place where all of these tools are coming from.